Era of Mist

Shi Tiexin was mistaken. He thought exams at Fengming First Middle School were always like this, that any old test was a Top-Grade Secret Record. That wasn’t the case at all. This was the first time any student at the school had ever faced an exam like this.

They were veterans of countless exams, but they had never encountered one quite like this. From eight to eleven o’clock—a full three hours? ’Yup, this is going to be a bladder-buster.’

Three hours was just too long. And so—

RIIIIP! Students all over the school tore open the paper seals. SCRIBBLE, SCRIBBLE, SCRIBBLE! They all began to write furiously. ’We can leave as soon as we finish the test! Who’d want to waste time on something so great? Let’s just finish this and get out of here!’

The test booklets were of high quality. Opening to the first page, a line of text was written right at the top: This test is worth a total of four hundred points. Looking further down, the test dove straight into the main content without any preamble—dense blocks of arithmetic problems. The problems were piled up like sheaves of wheat after a summer harvest, stacked in bundles and rows that made one’s head spin just looking at them.

However, when the students from Class 28 and the other bottom-tier classes took a closer look, they thought, ’Huh, these problems are actually pretty easy. Even a slacker like me can do them. Isn’t this just child’s play?’ And so, the students of the bottom-tier classes started scribbling away. ’If we have to pass notes or use cheat sheets for problems this simple, that’d be way too embarrassing.’

But soon, some in the bottom-tier classes began to chew on the ends of their pens.

The difficulty of the problems had suddenly skyrocketed.

Students started passing notes. They started peeking at their deskmates’ papers. They started exchanging glances and using hand signals. The proctor, Teacher Chu, paid them no mind. As long as they didn’t speak out loud and discuss things directly, he ignored it all. As a math teacher, Teacher Chu also opened a test booklet. He, too, wanted to see what was on the mysterious test Principal Liu had arranged.

So far, everything was still within his grasp. The problems were a bit difficult, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Besides, the difficulty curve was strangely addictive, inexplicably compelling him to keep going.

Suddenly, someone raised their hand. "Teacher, I need to use the restroom!"

Teacher Chu didn’t even look up, just waved his hand for the student to hurry up and go, not wanting to be disturbed while he was working on the problems.

One student got up and left, followed by several more. The restrooms slowly grew lively as a few people met up secretly inside. They had planned this beforehand: some would work from the front of the test, others from the back. Once they finished a section, they’d jot down the answers and meet up. The plan was to finish quickly and leave quickly. After all, bathroom breaks weren’t forbidden during this exam.

One of these students had nearly finished the first page and was ready to meet up as planned to exchange answers for the later problems. He waited and waited, and finally, the person he was looking for arrived. But when the guy showed up, he was already wearing his backpack.

"What are you doing with your backpack? Your class lets you leave with your bag?"

The guy looked miserable. "What are you talking about? I already handed in my test."

"You handed it in?" the first student asked in astonishment. "There were so many problems. Did you finish copying all of them?"

"Finish copying? Heh!" The other guy had a strange expression on his face. "I suggest you hand yours in, too. Don’t bother exchanging answers, it’s useless. The most important thing is to just turn it in and get out of here. There’s no way to finish it anyway. I don’t think anyone can finish it. This test is insane!"

The student from Class 28 was about to ask more, but the other guy just shook his head, muttered to himself, and left. The student returned to his classroom with his head full of questions, thinking that guy was a real jerk. ’He must have copied the answers from somewhere else and didn’t want to share. What a terrible person!’

But it wasn’t long before he began to understand how that guy felt.

He turned another page in the test booklet, and the difficulty turned another page with it. As soon as he saw this page, he immediately gave up any thought of asking for answers. Looking at all the slackers in Class 28, he doubted a single one of them could give him the answers to these. And this page was still relatively near the beginning of the entire booklet.

’Holy shit, can arithmetic problems even get this hard? I can’t do this, I can’t. I’ll just guess some answers and turn it in. Screw it, it’s just a small test anyway.’ He flipped through the rest of the booklet. The number of problems was huge; even just guessing would take a while. He scribbled randomly for two pages until his wrist started to ache.

’Forget it. It’s not like I’ll guess them right anyway. Who could possibly finish this massive pile of problems? I’ll just hand it in as is!’

Forty-five minutes into the exam, the student placed his test booklet on the teacher’s desk. Teacher Chu was engrossed in the problems and casually waved his hand, telling him to get lost. The student grabbed his backpack and bolted out of there.

And he wasn’t the first to leave. The first one to realize that even cheating was useless was that tough guy from Class 31, the one Shi Tiexin had sent flying into a wall. He couldn’t care less about any exam, so he turned in his paper and left after just half an hour. Some of the other slackers who aspired to become a Celestial King also turned in their papers one after another and left.

The selection process for King Zhou of the third-years couldn’t be delayed indefinitely. The results might even be decided in the next few days, so they had to make a move today. ’An exam? I don’t have time for an exam. I’ve got real business to take care of!’

One by one, students began to leave. The trend started in the bottom-tier classes and spread, reaching the regular classes an hour into the exam, and then continuing up the class-number hierarchy. After an hour and a half, a stir began to ripple through the elite classes as well.

One hour and forty minutes in, Gu Shaohuai from the first-year Class 7 was fidgeting anxiously in his seat. Staring at the problems before him, he could hardly believe his eyes. ’What the hell is this stuff! Why would a simple arithmetic test have problems like these!’

He secretly glanced around the classroom and saw that many students wore expressions of solemnity, anxiety, and distress. But an elite class was an elite class, after all. There was no whispering or cheating here. The students just stewed in their own frustration, poring over the test.

Gu Shaohuai was instantly relieved. ’Looks like it’s not that I’m not good enough; the test itself is just flawed. If even I, Gu Shaohuai, can’t solve these problems smoothly, then most other people can’t either. Problems this difficult are clearly way beyond the curriculum. They’d never show up on the college entrance exams. This test is completely meaningless—a total failure!’

He stole another glance at his deskmate, only to be surprised. The guy was actually making decent progress, cracking the puzzles one by one.

A tremor of unease went through Gu Shaohuai’s heart, but he quickly shook his head. ’Impossible, impossible. Even I’m struggling. This guy, this guy I’ve never even given a second thought, there’s no way he’s doing better. He must be putting on an act! He’s definitely doing it for me to see! He’s trying to make me think he’s solving them easily to shake my confidence and mess with my focus.’

’Yes, that must be it!’

’Well, well, Wang Zetao. Who knew a straight-laced guy like you was hiding such malicious intentions? I never would have guessed!’

’But it’s useless no matter how you pretend. I’ve figured it out. It’s impossible for anyone to finish this failed exam. It’s impossible for anyone to master problems that are so far beyond the curriculum!’

Gu Shaohuai felt certain of this, but a phrase seemed to flash through his mind in a daze. The thought was fleeting. It made him feel uneasy when it appeared, and once it was gone, he couldn’t grasp it again. It seemed like just a random, baseless notion he couldn’t quite recall.

The phrase, it seemed, was "little genius."